Gracyn: 2 years old

Dear Gracyn, you are 2 years old today. We love you so much! You make us laugh all the time at the funny things you do and say. You keep us on our toes!

Here's what you're up to:

- Running and talking. All the time. You are busy, busy!

- You can recite the entire ABC song

- Other songs you sing: Twinkle Twinkle, Sit back down, Happy Birthday. There have been a lot of birthdays at school, so this is a favorite right now.

- Can count from 1 to 10, and sometimes up to 14. Right now we are teaching you to count backwards from 10.

- You know all of your animals and what they "say"

- You can point out basic colors such as red, blue, orange, green, yellow, and purple

- Daddy taught you how to throw since you started walking. You now have a great arm and can throw with accuracy and distance! Daddy is now working with you on how to "step and throw." You are also learning how to catch.

-You can operate the iPad to find your games and movies (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & Little Einstein)

- Your vocabulary has grown exponentially. In some occasions you can put together a series of about three words to tell us what you want. You also can repeat just about any word that we tell you.

- Your dexterity is also growing exponentially. You can stack up building blocks by yourself about 1.5' high before they topple over.

- You can tell Bella how to "sit" and "down" before you give her chews.

We love you so much! And we're so thankful that God choose as your parents!

Halloween

Via Instagram, our little bee. Buzz!

Pumpkin Patch

Fun afternoon visit to the Pumpkin Patch, complete with pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins. We came home with our hand-picked bunch!

20 Months

Gracyn,

You are 20 months. Closer now to 2, WOW!

Weight: 26.5 lbs

Diapers: Size 5

Clothes: 18 month & 2T

Shoes: 6

- Lately you've become a master a procrastinating bedtime. You drag it out to say: "more books", "more rock-rock", "more daddy", "more mommy", "more Bedda", "more music" .... anything to stay up a little longer.

- Your vocabulary continues to grow and you're adding words together

New words: Boat, Car, Kakhi, Ketchup, Get Up (you tell me this a lot when I'm not doing what you want), yo-gut, banana, elefant

- You tell Bella what to do when we play fetch or to get a treat: Go Bedda, Bedda sit, Bedda down

- You've developed a picky eating style, we offer you what's been made for dinner but you usually request milk and yo-gut

Asked for a smile & got this face!

Peek-a-boo!

With Bella (Bedda)

First Haircut

It was time. Out with the mini-mullet! Thanks to some personal styling efforts, G has been rocking a mulletesque style lately. It was time to get this situation under control.

DeDe at Seagrass was happy to help.

Baby got her hair 'fixed' too!

Lee thinks this shot is hilarious!

Trimming up the front, slightly successful!

I love this expression. G's thinking "DeDe get that comb out of my face!"

We left with a few strands of hair and headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch. All around everyone was pretty happy!

Last Day at Children's Cottage

Today was a sad day, the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one.

Today we left behind friends we've known for a year.

Today I felt the immense love that the sweet teachers of Children's Cottage have for our sweet little girl and it was a wonderful feeling. It's amazing to know that everyday when I say "Goodbye" and head off to work those wonderful women loved my baby!

Gracyn & Ms. Jess (it was waterplay day, hence the swimwear)

We're looking ahead to moving to a new school at Milestones. It's closer to Lee & my offices and we are hoping that it will ease our daily pick-up/drop-off routine. And, I pray that Gracyn will find the same loving and devoted teachers at Milestones.

A yummy start to Memorial Day weekend!

I'm constantly amazed by how fast Gracyn grows & changes. Everyday it's something new with her! I'm comparing this year to last year. This time last year, she was baptized, had just learned to sit up and had started eating solid food.

Now she's running around this house, tearing it up and screaming like a mad woman. She has an endless supply of energy. And, last night she rocked the corn on the cob like it was her job. I started to cut it off the ear, but she reached out & grabbed the corn & ate it! And not just one or two bites, but the whole ear!

And she had a smile on her face the whole time!

18 Months

Gracyn,

You are 18 months, and you have been for a while. I want to make sure to document some funny things you have said & done.

Weight: 25 lbs

Diapers: Size 4

Clothes: 18month & 2T (You are getting so BIG!)

Shoes: 5.5 & 6

- At night when I check in on you, you are either curled into a little ball in one corner of your crib or stretched out on your back. You take of 2/3 of the bed when you stretch out. I think ahead to when you'll be all grown and in a big bed and I will still check on you!

- You say the funniest things and have a pretty good vocabulary:

New words: Up, Down, Bedda (Bella), Bants (Vance), Poppee (Charles), Maddux, Bodie, Erin & Paul (our neighbors & dog), night-nights (blankies), boppy (paci)

- While we were in MB recently, Maddux ate the ear off your lovey. You were not happy and you told him! "No, no Maddux!" "No, No". Since then when you see Bears messed up ear you say "UhOh, Maddux". There's a video below - her serious expression makes me laugh!

- You are into throwing things: food, your paci (Boppy), your cup. Yesterday you threw you paci and told me "Uh oh, boppy down".

- I wanted to get you a bike seat and I was determined to have it. We went to WalMart Friday night to make our purchase and your daddy spend 1.5 hours getting it all set up on Saturday morning. You took one look at that seat on the bike and screamed your head off. But we strapped you in & took off. And you loved it!

Untitled from Elizabeth Galloway on Vimeo.

McCloud Farms

2011 Garden: Progress

Here's were we were on April 10th, and here we are now!

Front to back: Green beans, squash, watermelon, bibb lettuce, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes

Above: Green beans and squash

Above: We grew the green beans from seeds and ended up with a lot. This is the overflow area

Above: Watermelon, lettuce

Spinach!

These next two were the only green pepper & tomato plants that made it from seedlings. They've got their own pots.

Wordless Wednesday - Bejeweled Diva

Easter Egg Hunt: Part Deux

We were in Hartsville for Easter, it was a great weekend. We had an Easter egg hunt, dinner with the fam, celebrating a few birthdays and ate way too many of Meme's cake. It was pretty great!

Some pics from Easter Egg Hunt #2!

Take a look at the jewelry. Yes. It's a curtain ring!

The Easter bunny didn't leave any Milkbone eggs! Poor B!

Egg hunts make me tired!

Happy Easter Sunday!

Disclaimer: Picture overload coming!

Happy Easter everyone! We are so blessed and it's weekends like this one that are such a great reminder of ALL our blessings. Time together with family & friends to celebrate each other & our faith. A look back to last year.

The Easter bunny came and brought more candy + books + new clothes!

Then we freshened up for church & pictures!

Easter Egg Hunt with school friends!

Children's Cottage hosted an Easter Egg hunt this morning. Here's a few pics of the 'hunt' & our 'huntress'!

On the hunt.

Checkin' the area for more eggs!

Pick 'em up & put 'em in the basket!

Whoa! These eggs have candy in them!

She didn't know that was going to happen, since we've 'practiced' with empty eggs @ home!

Spring Smiles

**This is 1 of 4 new posts, so scroll down!**

Sweet spring smiles! So cute, it kills me!

Gracyn - 17 Months

There's really no excuse for our absence. We've been enjoying March Madness. Lee & I had a weekend 'home alone', then we visited Jacksonville, then Gracyn & I were in Myrtle Beach and then we all hit the road for Charleston. So, not a lot of time for blogging, but I want to capture these memories & milestones for Gracyn.

Gracyn you are 17 months old. Really?! One month shy of 1.5 years old! Wow!

You are full of life, you never stop moving, playing, exploring, talking while you are awake. You never stop, really, that's the truth. You will sit still to look at books, which I LOVE. You will carry as many over to read as we are willing to tolerate. Favorites right now are lift-the-flap, texture and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

You are teething, your fang teeth. So, you're not really a fan of eating so much. We've avoided dining in public because right now you throw your food & milk cup on the floor. We're working on discipline but that's a constant battle. It's also a challenge feeding you because what you love today, you'll hate tomorrow. I never thought I would see this happen, you've always eaten any & everything. I pray this is just a phase.

You sign please & more. You say please, more, thank you. Other new words/phrases include:
Cracker, I love you, Nose, Eye, Bella, Sara, Andrew

You know where you eyes, ears, nose, hair, head, toes & belly are. You'll point them out to us.

You challenge & test us constantly, not only while eating. You play in Bella's water & food - we have to move you from there ALL THE TIME!

You are still a great sleeper. You go so hard that the minute we put you in bed, you've laid down and closed your eyes. You are such a joy & we love you dearly!

A little bonus, our background was the climbing rose bush. Golden showers!